1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a lamp socket, a backlight assembly having the lamp socket and a display device having the lamp socket. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a lamp socket including a wire connection part, a backlight assembly having the lamp socket and a display device having the lamp socket.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Backlight assemblies of a liquid crystal display (LCD) device may be classified as either a direct illumination type backlight assembly or an edge illumination type backlight assembly, based on the location of the light source.
The direct illumination type backlight assembly, having a plurality of lamps as light sources, is used to for large sized display devices such as monitors, televisions and digital information displays. ‘I’ type lamps have been used as light sources for a display device. ‘U’ type lamps have also been used as light sources. One ‘U’ type lamp can substitute for two ‘I’ type lamps without substantial loss of brightness, so that a total number of lamps of a display device using ‘U’ lamps can be half of that of a display device using ‘I’ lamps. It is possible to reduce the cost of producing a display device and simplify the assembly process of the display device by substituting ‘I’ type lamps with ‘U’ type lamps. A backlight assembly including a lamp socket combined with an electrode portion of the lamp through a fitting combination in order to fix the lamps to the backlight assembly more easily has been developed. The lamp socket electrically connects the lamp to an inverter. The inverter may include an inverter board and a plurality of chips mounted on the inverter board. The lamp is coupled to the lamp socket by pushing the electrode portion of the lamp into a receiving portion of the lamp socket without a further process for coupling, such as soldering. Also, the inverter is coupled to the lamp socket by pushing a coupling portion of the inverter board into a receiving portion of the lamp socket without a further process.
FIG. 8a is a plan view of a conventional backlight assembly with lamps coupled to lamp sockets and FIG. 8b is a plan view showing a lower structure of the backlight assembly of FIG. 8a. Referring to FIG. 8a and FIG. 8b, the inverter board 1200 is coupled to the lamp socket 1100 below the bottom chassis 1300. The inverter board 1200 includes a coupling portion protruding toward a direction where the lamp socket 1100 is disposed and the lamp socket 1100 includes a groove exposed below the bottom chassis 1300. The coupling portion of the inverter board 1200 is inserted into the groove of the lamp socket 1100. The length of the inverter board 1200 is the same as or longer than T. T is defined as the longest length between two lamp sockets 1100. The size of the chips mounted on the inverter board has become smaller, so it is possible to reduce the length of the inverter board. If the length of the inverter board is reduced, the cost of producing or buying the inverter board is reduced and also the total volume of the backlight assembly can be reduced. Accordingly, there is need for a backlight assembly configuration that allows for reduction of the length of the inverter board and that does not require the length of the inverter board to be the same as or longer than the length T and to be coupled to the lamp sockets 1100 as in a conventional backlight assembly.